Results

Twenty-eight of 36 patients (78%) with Crohn's disease and 13 of 22 patients (59%) with ulcerative colitis tested positive as compared to only 3 of 89 (3.3%) controls (P¾0.001).

Conclusion

The detection of IgM anti-measles virus in the majority of patients with Crohn's disease and in about half of ulcerative colitis patients as compared to a very low prevalence in patients with other chronic inflammatory disease is consistent with the hypothesis that the measles virus has pathogenetic implications in inflammatory bowel diseases.